The present invention relates generally to a method of wet laser drilling of transparent materials and devices made by this method. The method is suitable for making of optical fiber devices.
In the optical communications field of optical fibers and photonic devices, it is desirable to have optical fibers precisely held and positioned in a photonic material device. Optical communications devices often require the precise holding of optical fibers in a glass material, for example an optical fiber ferrule. In biomedical or chemical fields it is desirable to have well plates that are capable of holding a very small, precisely determined amounts of chemical or biological materials. Well plates are substrays with a plurality of microscopic depressions or cups that can contain various biological samples or test materials.
The article entitled “Femosecond laser-assisted three-dimensional microfabrication in silica” published on Mar. 1, 2001 in Vol. 26, No. 5, OPTICS LETTERS describes a 3-D microfabrication in silica glass. The described process utilizes the steps of (i) writing a 3-D pattern inside silica glass by focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulses and utilizes and (ii) etching the damaged silica glass with HF acid. However, this process is relatively long because it utilizes two consecutive steps and the exposure to acid can be hazardous to human health. Furthermore, the produced holes have large surface irregularities and are very short (maximum length is about 120 μm)
The article entitled “Three dimensional hole drilling of silica glass from the rear surface with femptosecond laser pulses” published on Dec. 1, 2001 in Vol. 26, No. 23, OPTICS LETTERS describes a single step 3-D microfabrication in silica glass that does not utilize HF acid. This article describes the use of the shutter-interrupted focused laser beam in conjunction with water. The shutter was utilized to purposely introduce delay periods in the process, to allow inflow of water into the hole. Thus, because of the purposely introduced delays delay periods, this process was also relatively long. In addition, this method results in very small holes (21 μm or smaller) in diameter and relatively short hole length (600 μm or less). The article does not teach nor suggests how to drill wider and/or longer holes.